The Yaris Hatchback is celebrating 2012 with a comprehensive overhaul. What Toyota once thought as novel turned out to be somewhat of a misstep, especially where the cabin was concerned.
In actuality, I suspect that the odd interior and dated exterior of the car was the reason for losing sales to much fresher looking rivals such as the Honda Fit and the Nissan Versa. You can also expect the new Chevrolet Sonic to enter the mix as well. Toyota being the most conservative of the bunch still has the Yaris Hatchback retain a conservative design that is both unmistakeably Toyota and totally practical.
Getting Comfortable
When you open the front door of the 2012 Toyota Yaris Hatchback, you can’t help but notice that the opening is large and that the door opens quite wide. Next observation goes to the front seat when your tush drops into place. It is comfortable (heated seats are not available though) and covered in a very durable material that feels like cloth, but isn’t. Seat shape is such that most body types will fit comfortably and be well supported.
The change of Life
Yaris Hatchback drivers are in for a big surprise. A Yaris Sedan utilizes a central instrumentation theme that has all of the gauges, switches and controls in the centre of the car. All hatchbacks revert to a more convention setup and have the instruments, warning indicators and controls in front of the driver. Stereo and HVAC controls are still in the centre stack with better separation and large enough controls to work with gloves on.
In the Back
Back seat occupants of the five-door 2012 Toyota Yaris Hatchback will find head room to be excellent, but knee, leg and foot room to be limited by the benevolence of the front seat occupants. For me to be able to sit in the rear, the driver’s seat had to be pulled up three notches from where I would normally sit. Not a huge sacrifice in comfort and a more normally sized driver would probably have the seat ahead those three notches already.
Big Space, Little Car
The big advantage of a hatchback over a sedan is cargo space. In a small hatchback such as the Yaris, this advantage is quite obvious with the 60/40 split rear seat folded down to provide one large cargo hold from the front seats to the hatch. This space will hold more than you expect. With the seat up, the privacy cover will keep your shopping out of sight.
In actuality, I suspect that the odd interior and dated exterior of the car was the reason for losing sales to much fresher looking rivals such as the Honda Fit and the Nissan Versa. You can also expect the new Chevrolet Sonic to enter the mix as well. Toyota being the most conservative of the bunch still has the Yaris Hatchback retain a conservative design that is both unmistakeably Toyota and totally practical.
Getting Comfortable
When you open the front door of the 2012 Toyota Yaris Hatchback, you can’t help but notice that the opening is large and that the door opens quite wide. Next observation goes to the front seat when your tush drops into place. It is comfortable (heated seats are not available though) and covered in a very durable material that feels like cloth, but isn’t. Seat shape is such that most body types will fit comfortably and be well supported.
The change of Life
Yaris Hatchback drivers are in for a big surprise. A Yaris Sedan utilizes a central instrumentation theme that has all of the gauges, switches and controls in the centre of the car. All hatchbacks revert to a more convention setup and have the instruments, warning indicators and controls in front of the driver. Stereo and HVAC controls are still in the centre stack with better separation and large enough controls to work with gloves on.
In the Back
Back seat occupants of the five-door 2012 Toyota Yaris Hatchback will find head room to be excellent, but knee, leg and foot room to be limited by the benevolence of the front seat occupants. For me to be able to sit in the rear, the driver’s seat had to be pulled up three notches from where I would normally sit. Not a huge sacrifice in comfort and a more normally sized driver would probably have the seat ahead those three notches already.
Big Space, Little Car
The big advantage of a hatchback over a sedan is cargo space. In a small hatchback such as the Yaris, this advantage is quite obvious with the 60/40 split rear seat folded down to provide one large cargo hold from the front seats to the hatch. This space will hold more than you expect. With the seat up, the privacy cover will keep your shopping out of sight.
Compact Power
The powertrain remains the tried, tested and true 1.5 litre I-4 that puts out 106 horsepower and 103 lb-ft of torque. Transmission choices consist of a 5-speed manual gearbox which is standard and the option is a 4-speed automatic.
Frozen Solid Driving
My test time in the 2012 Yaris Hatchback covered extremes in temperature, grocery getting and a bit of sport driving. When temperatures were more amenable to fun (0 C to -5 C), I took the Yaris around clover leafs, through corners and generally had as much fun as 105 horsepower would let me. The automatic shifted often to keep up with the demands I put on the system.
The 2012 Absolutely Red Yaris 5-door hatchback could run away from most other at the stop lights because it had four winter tires on it. As a new purchase, it would come with four all Season (No Season??) tires which would have reduced winter driving fun noticeably.
Relaxed driving is the order of the day when it is -35 C. This also coincided with our normal grocery shopping and it is never in my best interest to play about when “She Who Must be Obeyed” is with me. Trust me, the Yaris is more capable of being a sedate grocery getter than I am!! The Yaris did fit into every parking space we found and parallel parking was so easy it made me look good.
Snow Plow in Reverse
On top of that, road manners, even with a mostly frozen suspension were quite good. I was able to change lanes without the lurching that often accompanies crossing from one set of ruts to another. The crowning glory, however, was being able to drive through seriously snow covered streets and not get stuck. This is when I found out that the traction control can’t be shut off and that in soft snow, said system will actually help get you stuck. Fortunately plan “B” worked. I found out by accident that when in reverse, the traction control system has different operational limits and I was able to do my snow plow routine in reverse.
Cars that put grins on faces, especially in the winter deserve a test drive if you are going to buy a subcompact car!
The powertrain remains the tried, tested and true 1.5 litre I-4 that puts out 106 horsepower and 103 lb-ft of torque. Transmission choices consist of a 5-speed manual gearbox which is standard and the option is a 4-speed automatic.
Frozen Solid Driving
My test time in the 2012 Yaris Hatchback covered extremes in temperature, grocery getting and a bit of sport driving. When temperatures were more amenable to fun (0 C to -5 C), I took the Yaris around clover leafs, through corners and generally had as much fun as 105 horsepower would let me. The automatic shifted often to keep up with the demands I put on the system.
The 2012 Absolutely Red Yaris 5-door hatchback could run away from most other at the stop lights because it had four winter tires on it. As a new purchase, it would come with four all Season (No Season??) tires which would have reduced winter driving fun noticeably.
Relaxed driving is the order of the day when it is -35 C. This also coincided with our normal grocery shopping and it is never in my best interest to play about when “She Who Must be Obeyed” is with me. Trust me, the Yaris is more capable of being a sedate grocery getter than I am!! The Yaris did fit into every parking space we found and parallel parking was so easy it made me look good.
Snow Plow in Reverse
On top of that, road manners, even with a mostly frozen suspension were quite good. I was able to change lanes without the lurching that often accompanies crossing from one set of ruts to another. The crowning glory, however, was being able to drive through seriously snow covered streets and not get stuck. This is when I found out that the traction control can’t be shut off and that in soft snow, said system will actually help get you stuck. Fortunately plan “B” worked. I found out by accident that when in reverse, the traction control system has different operational limits and I was able to do my snow plow routine in reverse.
Cars that put grins on faces, especially in the winter deserve a test drive if you are going to buy a subcompact car!
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